November112011

The World Diabetes Foundation estimated that some 285 million people,
or around 6 percent of the world's adult population, were living with
diabetes in 2010. For type 1 diabetics and up to 27 percent of type 2
diabetics, that means daily insulin injections, which can be
uncomfortable and inconvenient. Since most people would rather pop a
pill than get a shot, researchers have been trying to develop an oral
form of insulin. However, this has proven difficult because insulin is
a protein that is broken down in the stomach and gut. Now a team of
researchers from Australia's Curtin University has found an insulin
substitute to treat diabetes orally that they hope could help take the
needle out of diabetes for many people.

In an effort to
find a compound that emulates the molecular map of insulin, Professor
Erik Helmerhorst and his colleagues at Curtin University in research
undertaken with Australian pharmaceutical company Epichem searched the
structures of three million compounds.

October312011

There is a lot of bad information circulating around Occupy Denver about chemical weapons and how to treat them. Here are our protocols that we use for Tear Gas and Pepper Spray. Circulate very widely.

Please use this information to prepare yourself and your friends. To run as a Street Medic, please attend a training. You can also attend health and safety classes taught by Street Medics for more in depth education.

Remember that none of these effects are universal. People respond very differently to chemical weapons

ALSO! These weapons are primarily weapons of fear. One of the best things everyone can do is help spread calm to panicking people, walk away from the scene (don't run!) and get people to medics.

There is a lot of bad information and stupid protocol out there. Be aware when you go online or read things.

Being Prepared

NEVER wear contacts to a demonstration.

Dress in layers

Wear sunscreen regularly every day year-round, especially in Colorado. Oil-free is best, but in Colorado particularly it is always better to wear sunscreen rather than be exposed to chemical weapons on a sunburn

Wear closed toed shoes that are broken in with socks

Do not wear dangling earrings. Take out facial piercings

Bring a change of clothing (at least a shirt) sealed in a plastic bag

Do not bring animals to a demonstration

Be aware that there are additional health risks posed to children, elders, people with chronic medical problems (like asthma, COPD and heart conditions) and those that are pregnant. Street Medics strongly encourage these groups of people to avoid scenes with potential for chemical weapons (i.e. police are holding them, in riot gear, etc)

Tear Gas

Deployed by canisters which are fired or thrown in grenades into a crowd. These canisters are also full of smoke. Sometimes they will have BBs and other projectiles mixed in. Tear Gas is not commonly used in busy urban areas, especially in Denver, as it lingers in the air for prolonged periods. The effects of tear gas diminish drastically once you move away from the gas.

Effects

Irritation: eyes, skin, mucous membranes

Breathing trouble

Nausea & vomiting

Panic

Damage to the eyes (if you are wearing contacts)

Tear gas can have long terms side effects such as flu-like symptoms, disruption to menstrual cycles and other complications.

Eyes: Swim goggles with rubber seals and no foam will protect eyes sufficiently. Do not wear contacts even if you have eye protection!

Respiratory: A bandana soaked in apple cider vinegar and sealed in a ziploc bag is the easiest protection to wear. Tie this over the mouth and nose when you suspect weapons will be deployed. Wearing a dry bandana underneath can make the smell more tolerable. These are relatively short acting, so once weapons are deployed, make an exit. A respirator with N95 Chemical Particulate filters can be found at most hardware stores and will also work. Note: Respirators do not work if you have facial hair.

Gas Masks: Make sure your mask does not have glass lenses, as these will shatter and damage the eye. Gas masks are hot and hard to wear. If you get a gas mask, practice putting it on until you can do so smoothly and running in it. See if you can seriously wear one for prolonged periods of time.

What To Do

Evacuate the area. Walk. Encourage others to walk.

Find a medic or someone that can do an eye wash.

Do not rub your eyes.

Eye washes

Eye washes are a forceful flush of water in the eyes. We use the squeezable bike water bottles (NOT drinking water bottles.) NEVER use anything but water for eye washes. WATER ONLY. Street Medics can teach you how to do an eye wash. Do not touch your face or rub your eyes.

You may hear about using something called LAW (liquid antacid and water) for pepper spray in eyes. Many medic collective have success with LAW. However, there are specific risks and instructions for making and using LAW. Unless you have received this training, use WATER ONLY

Skin

Washing skin with castile soap is the best way to get chemical weapons off. Wash so that water runs away from the eyes and use cold water.

Decontamination

After being exposed to chemical weapons, it is important to remember that there will be a residue remaining on your clothing long after you are actually exposed to the chemicals. If you enter and sort of closed space while wearing contaminated clothing, the residue from your clothes will contaminate the room.

How to properly decontaminate:

As soon as possible, and before entering an uncontaminated area, remove any exposed clothing and any other articles that may have been contaminated, tightly seal them in a plastic bag, and mark the bag “contaminated”.

Shower in the coldest water you can possibly stand, scrubbing with soap. Do not use warm/hot water and do not take a bath.

Wash contaminated clothes in a harsh detergent, dumping them straight from the sealed bag into the washing machine.

After exposure to chemical weapons, be sure to drink a lot of water. Be aware that these weapons contain chemicals that can have lasting health issues. Eating healthy foods (leafy greens, grains), avoiding drugs/alcohol and being more health conscious after an action can help you recover faster.

A few important things to remember in general:

If you are hurt or need a medic and can walk, please come to our marked treatment areas or approach us

If you cannot move or see someone that cannot move, yell "MEDIC"

Many people have valuable training in medicine, but Street Medic trainings use specific and time tested methods for protest specific injuries. Please do not represent yourself as a street medic or intervene in Street Medic treatments. We would be happy to do a bridge training so you can run with us or help set up a role for you if you contact us in advance.
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July072011

Dyslexie is a typeface for dyslectics. The University of Twente did research on the typeface. Hereby a part of their conclusion:"The
dyslectics made fewer errors, than the normal readers, on the EMT with
the font "Dyslexie". This is an indication that reading with the font
"Dyslexie" decreases the amount of reading errors."

May072011

Researchers testing mental illness figured out how to induce schizophrenic symptoms in a computer, causing it to place itself at the center of crazy delusions, such as claiming responsibility for a terrorist bombing. The results bolster a hypothesis that claims faulty information processing can lead to schizophrenic symptoms.

Computer scientists at the University of Texas-Austin built a neural network called DISCERN, which is able to learn natural language. The humans taught it a series of simple stories, teaching it to store information as relationships between words and sentences — much the same way a person would learn a story.

Then they started again, but cranked up DISCERN’s rate of learning — so it was assimilating words at a faster rate, and it was not ignoring as much noise in the data.

Some mental health experts believe schizophrenics cannot forget or ignore as much stimuli as they should, which makes it difficult to synthesize and process the correct information. This “hyperlearning” phenomenon causes schizophrenics to lose connections among individual stories, losing the distinction between reality and illusion. Dopamine is a key factor in the process of understanding and differentiating experiences.

Telling the computer to “forget less” was akin to flooding the system with dopamine, confounding its ability to discern relationships between words, sentences and events, according to a news release from UT.

“DISCERN began putting itself at the center of fantastical, delusional stories that incorporated elements from other stories it had been told to recall,” according to the news release. In one answer, it claimed responsibility for a terrorist bombing.

The experiment doesn’t prove the hyperlearning hypothesis, but it does lend it additional credence, according to the researchers, who published their crazed computer findings in the journal Biological Psychiatry. It also shows that neural networks can be a useful analogue for the information-processing centers of the brain, according to graduate student Uli Grasemann, who participated in the research.

“We have so much more control over neural networks than we could ever have over human subjects,” he said. “The hope is that this kind of modeling will help clinical research.”

March032011

It is happening all across America and now in Europe and Africa as well - rural landowners wake up one day to find a lucrative offer from a multinational energy conglomerate wanting to lease their property. The Reason? In America, the company hopes to tap into a huge natural gas reservoir dubbed the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. Halliburton developed a way to get the gas out of the ground—a hydraulic drilling process called fracking—and suddenly America finds itself on the precipice of becoming an energy superpower.

But what comes out of the ground with that natural gas? How does it affect our air and drinking water? GASLAND is a powerful personal documentary that confronts these questions with spirit, strength, and a sense of humor. When filmmaker Josh Fox receives his cash offer in the mail, he travels across 32 states to meet other rural residents on the front lines of fracking. He discovers toxic streams, ruined aquifers, dying livestock, brutal illnesses, and kitchen sinks that burst into flame. He learns that all water is connected and perhaps some things are more valuable than money.